When was the last time you’ve considered the business impact of a simple label? The need and importance of labels has morphed well beyond just packaging and shipping. In fact, there are more than 25,000 combinations of labels, tags, and ribbons available to support many different manufacturing labelling applications. Why so many? Consider the number and cost of parts found in electronic and medical devices today. There are 15 component and packaging labels needed to manufacture and ship a typical smartphone alone.
The manufacturing industry has a heavy reliance on manual and paper-based processes, homegrown applications, and legacy systems that are, for the most part, obsolete by even the most forgiving standards. However, it’s all about to change.
In the evolving world of manufacturing technology, improving operations while also reducing costs remains a top priority. Mobility solutions such as computers, scanners, and printers enable manufacturers to equip their mobile workers with the latest technology to meet business demands but also help to lower costs — proving to be a critical element in manufacturing IT.
Things move fast today — and manufactures have to keep up. The more mobile and untethered a manufacturer’s warehouse or sales force can become, the more efficient they can be.
Mobile devices are well on their way to becoming integrated into almost every industry, providing new ways to capture data in real time and speed up the process of overall productivity. The advantages of mobility in manufacturing and warehousing applications are continually expanding.
Excellence in labeling has always provided a competitive advantage in the business of manufacturing, but today the amount of critical data that needs to be printed on a bar code label far surpasses what was considered to be sufficient in the past. From identification to grouping, shipping, locating and tracking products that flow upstream and downstream in the supply chain, there is a great deal of information, often in multiple languages, that needs to be included on a “simple” label.
The technical applications software market* — those covering industries such as architecture, utilities, and manufacturing utilizing software such as PLM (product lifecycle management), CAD/CAM (computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing) and GIS (geographical information system) for engineering design — is highly detailed. Utilizing this software in a business environment means careful selection of the most useful of this software — and with a minimum of overlap.
There is a lot of talk about cloud computing today and its exponentially growing presence among enterprise technology, particularly product lifecycle management (PLM). While PLM “in the cloud” is available today, its adoption can be slow. PLM provides a central and secure location to track and manage product data throughout the product lifecycle including: component data, bill of materials (BOMs), product documentation, engineering changes and revisions, as well as quality and compliance information.
To be able to leverage enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) and business intelligence (BI), it is importance to understand what each brings to the table for a manufacturer. Do you know the differences between enterprise manufacturing intelligence (EMI) and business intelligence (BI)? Are they interchangeable? Complementary?
Mobility provides a number of advantages for manufacturing and warehousing applications, including everything from reduced manual errors to increased employee productivity to faster time to market. As warehouse and factory operators are increasingly realizing these benefits, they are turning to mobile solutions in growing numbers.